If You Think You Have Got It Bad

If You Think You Have Got It Bad

Desperate slum-dwellers wade up to their EARS in filthy sludge after their homes burn down
Desperately wading through neck-high sludge surrounded by trash, rubble and filth, a pair of homeless Filipino men begin the search for their belongings hours after a catastrophic fire savaged hundreds of shanty town houses.
These pictures of devastation show the appalling aftermath of a dawn fire which tore through a settlement in the Philippines, leaving up to 3,000 people homeless.
The blaze in Maysilo village, near Manila, started early on Thursday morning and obliterated the residential district in the night, destroying hundreds of houses.
Firefighters say the destructive fire started at a row of squatter houses and is thought to have been caused by an exploding liquefied petroleum gas tank.

Homeless residents were left to sift through the charred carnage and wade across dirty pools of debris in the hope of retrieving any of their possessions.
Men, women and children all had to pitch in around their blackened, wrecked homes as attempts were made by residents to recover anything valuable or reuseable.
Emergency services struggled to contain the fast-spreading fire because many of the affected houses were very close together and made of light materials.

The Philippines capital city of Manila is no stranger to devastating fires, as several in recent years have wrecked other shanty towns like Maysilo village, which is among the poorest areas in the city.
The huge blaze started at 2.24am on Thursday, and was tackled by firefighters from nearby Malabon City, as well as volunteer foremen on 30 other fire trucks from neighbouring cities.
Fire crews managed to officially declare the fire extinguished by 7.15am, by which time it had decimated almost the entire settlement in Malabon, Manila.
Investigators said no one was injured in the fire, as homeless residents temporarily housed at a nearby elementary school to receive aid.

Malabon City mayor Tito Oreta called for immediate relief operations to help the affected families.
Head of Malabon Fire Station, Fire Chief Insp. Rodrigo Reyes, said crews had no problem responding to the fire scene, but had difficulty getting close enough to the fire itself.

He said firefighters had to make several holes at the entry point of the area for them to be able to prevent the fire from spreading further.
Insp. Reyes also revealed that residents told him the latest blaze is not the first time the settlement has been devastated by fire.
Families said another fire in 1995 did similar damage, levelling all houses in the area to the ground.
Insp. Reyes said the cause of the fire was still under investigation, warning residents to be more vigilant and 'act as firemen in their own homes'.
Source:Dailymail